Piracy of digital content is a huge problem for the content (a.k.a. entertainment) industry. The solution must be a balance of content owner, consumer electronic, and information technology company interests, as well as provide the consumer easy-to-use content and benefits to switch from current CDs, DVDs, VHS, and free file sharing.
There are a number of proposed systems that seek to provide this balance. Some of these systems include the use of embedded data, and specifically, digital watermarks, to provide a number of functions, including copyright notice communication, persistent links to related metadata, rights management, and e-commerce opportunities, transaction tracking, and record and play control. Some examples are described in U.S. patent applications and patents: U.S. Ser. No. 60/134,782, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,522,769, 6,442,285, 6,505,160, U.S. Ser. Nos. 09/636,102, 10/118,468 (published as U.S. 20020188841-A1), 10/126,921 (published as U.S. 20020186844), which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Content and personal domain identifiers are used to enable copyright notification and e-Commerce. In one embodiment, the system notifies the user of any content that is identified as a copyrighted work, and lets the user decide to continue or learn more and potentially purchase the content. In an enhanced embodiment, the system determines if the user has rights to play (or view) the content. If so, it plays the content. If not, there are options to purchase or play the content anyway. In an alternative embodiment, the content can be free, purchased or sampled, and the related metadata is purchased, if desired. It is easier to protect dynamic metadata, like concert dates, band info, etc., since it must be continually accessed from the content owner as the data is changing. Therefore, it is usually stored on a server. All embodiments can interact in various combinations, such as the system providing a copyright notification window, and then offering metadata for sale.